Chennai: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is banking on a VHF-based navigation system and another satellite based system to make the second runway usable. Airlines have not been keen to use the runway because it does not have an instrument landing system that allows planes to home in and land with precision.
Though the second runway was opened for daytime use in May and AAI informed airlines that they can use it when main runway is closed for maintenance on Tuesdays and Saturdays, pilots did not want to risk safety by peering out of cockpit and make a visual approach to land on the runway.
AAI has now installed a VOR (VHF Omni Directional Radio Range) and has carried out trials. It has also speeded up installation of GBAS (Ground-Based Augmentation System) for satellite-based precision approach and landings on the second runway.
VOR allows a plane to identify the location of an airport or a runway based on radio signals while GBAS uses a set of satellites to guide a plane to a runway. This new satellite-based system is future technology aimed at eliminating the need for ground-based navigation stations for aircraft. "We have completed four trials of the VOR. Now the director general of civil aviation has to clear it," said a senior official of AAI.
13/08/14 V Ayyappan/Times of India
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Though the second runway was opened for daytime use in May and AAI informed airlines that they can use it when main runway is closed for maintenance on Tuesdays and Saturdays, pilots did not want to risk safety by peering out of cockpit and make a visual approach to land on the runway.
AAI has now installed a VOR (VHF Omni Directional Radio Range) and has carried out trials. It has also speeded up installation of GBAS (Ground-Based Augmentation System) for satellite-based precision approach and landings on the second runway.
VOR allows a plane to identify the location of an airport or a runway based on radio signals while GBAS uses a set of satellites to guide a plane to a runway. This new satellite-based system is future technology aimed at eliminating the need for ground-based navigation stations for aircraft. "We have completed four trials of the VOR. Now the director general of civil aviation has to clear it," said a senior official of AAI.
13/08/14 V Ayyappan/Times of India
